BETWEEN THE LINES

The Obamanation of desolation

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND. He is the author or co-author of 13 books that have sold more than 5 million copies, including his latest, "The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age." Before launching WND as the first independent online news outlet in 1997, he served as editor in chief of major market dailies including the legendary Sacramento Union.

Dinesh D’Souza can’t say it. So let me say it for him: Barack Obama is using and abusing his power to come after his enemies with a vengeance.

The indictment of D’Souza is so brazen, so shameless, so indecent, it suggests Obama doesn’t even care what his critics say about him – and maintains complete confidence his friends and political allies who dominate the media won’t call him out.

Consider the circumstances of this case.

D’Souza was arguably the highest profile critic of Obama in the 2012 election year having created “2016: Obama’s America,” the second most successful political documentary in history. Within a year of beginning his second term, Obama’s Justice Department indicts D’Souza on penny-ante campaign finance violations of the kind that are seldom enforced.

D’Souza is booked, held on $500,000 bail and his passport is held to make sure he doesn’t flee the country he loves.

This all comes at the very moment D’Souza is set to unveil his next movie project – which is certain to be highly critical of Obama.

Obama promised us audacity, and this is one campaign pledge on which he made good.

Here’s what’s so shocking about this case: Let’s say D’Souza is guilty of everything with which he is charged – exceeding the limits of donations to a congressional candidate he liked by $15,000 or $20,000. And let’s assume this case made its way up to the second-highest official in the Justice Department through normal channels – without any suggestion from Obama or the White House.

When the case comes to Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who is considered the insider most likely to replace Eric Holder as attorney general should he leave before 2017, you might think he would decide not to file. I think most political appointees in that situation would say, “Wow, if I file this case, it’s going to look like political retribution. It’s probably not worth it given the scope of this alleged violation.”

But that’s not what happened – not in the Obama administration.

Instead, they threw the book at D’Souza. They did it in a high-profile way so as to humiliate him as much as possible. Did they really think D’Souza was a flight risk who needed his passport revoked? Was $500,000 bail just a tiny bit excessive for such a small potatoes charge?

The Obama administration didn’t care. It didn’t care about appearing to single out a high-profile political enemy. It didn’t care about doing it in a heavy-handed, jackbooted manner. It didn’t care about doing it in a disproportionate fashion.

In fact, it did all of this deliberately – with a purpose.

Understand what this indictment means.

If you’ve been exercising your own First Amendment rights by being publicly critical of Obama, you could be next. Obama has sent a message to his political enemies: The gloves are coming off.

This is the administration that previously went after its enemies by using the Internal Revenue Service. You might think Obama would be a little hesitant to abuse his authority so blatantly. But he’s not – the benefit of lame-duck status and a lapdog media.

This action is designed to have a chilling effect on his critics – and it is working.

I personally have made it a point to get public figures on the record about what they think of the D’Souza indictment. I’m shocked at the timidity and excuse-making I hear from so many. Some won’t exchange emails on the subject. Some won’t talk on the phone about it. Why? Because they fear they will be next.

The message Obama and Holder sent out with this indictment of D’Souza is being heard loud and clear: The next three years are going to be ugly for critics of Obama. It’s going to be a bloodbath. They are going to use, misuse and abuse all of the power at their disposal to make life miserable for those who oppose their policies. They are going to do it without reservation.